NO. 1269. ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR MAMMALS— MILLER. 783 
Bl3'^th's Notes on the Fauna of the Nicobar Islands, published in 
1846.' The animal was here recorded as Pteropus edtdis; but that 
BIyth was not satisfied with this determination is shown by the stress 
laid on the peculiarities of the specimens. His entire account is as 
follows: 
Plernpus edulis: Pi. javnnicu.'^, Horsf., etc. Three specimens are remarkalile for 
having the throat and front of the neck black, the head blackish, the nape dnll 
reddish-brown, the back shining black, flanks and vent dull black, and the rest of 
the underparts dull reddish brown, much paler in the center. 
This is an excellent description of Pteropiis nicobaricus. In 1863 
Blyth applied to these specimens the name Pteropm melanotus^ but 
this, according' to Dobson, at least* — I have not seen the work where 
it occurs^ — is a nomen nudum. Meanwhile the naturalists of the 
Novara expedition had discovered the animal on Car Nicobar; and 
the name Pteropus nicobaricus had been published. This name as it 
appeared in 1860 was purel}' a nomen nudum., and not until 1869 was 
it properly defined. The correct specific name for this bat is there- 
fore open to serious question, since any positive means of connecting 
Blj^th's Pteropus melanotus of 1863 with his description of 1846 would 
preclude the use of nicobaricus. 
In the supplement to Mouat's Adventures and Researches Among 
the Andaman Islanders, 1863, Blyth states that no Pteropus has 3'et 
been observed upon the Andamans; but in 1876 Dobson records 
P. nicobaricus from both Andamans and Nicobars, while two 3'ears 
later he gives the range as including the Andamans, Nicobars, Java, 
and Pulo Condor. I am inclined to doubt the authenticity of these 
records, though I have had no opportunity of examining the speci- 
mens on which they are based. That a Pteropus is abundant on some 
of the Andaman Islands is shown by Hume's account of a species 
observed in 1873. 
As we were returning [he writes],* thousands of huge flying foxes (Pteropus nico- 
baricus they proved to be) poured out from the higher trees on this side of the island 
[the smaller Jolly Boy] in one continuous stream. We shot five or six; those that 
were not quite dead we retrieved as they floated, but those that were killed outright 
sank like stones, and we only succeeded in fishing up one of these that we marked 
exactly, and then saw lying black on the coral bottom that shone up white and bright 
in the moonlight. 
Other records of specimens from the Andamans may be found in 
Anderson's Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Indian Museum.^ 
Here is mentioned also a skull from Mergui, but it has no history, 
and the localit}'^ given is probably erroneous.® 
iJonrn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, XV, pp. 367-379 (Mammalia, pp. 367-368). 
■^Monogr. Asiat. Chiropt., 1876, p. 17. 
•^Catal. Mamm. Mus. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1863, p. 20. 
* Stray Feathers, II, p. 61, 1874. 
*Pp. 102-103. 
^See Blanford, The Fauna of British India, Mamm., 1891, p. 261. 
